Mine tram



June 9, 1964 w. s. HOWARD MINE TRAM Filed Oct. 2, 1961 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR Wf/Uam 5. Howard ATTORNEY June 9,1964 w. s. HOWARD MINE TRAM 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct. 2, 1961 INVENTOR W/'///'0m 5. Howard Nv I- ATTORNEY June 9, 1964 w. s. HOWARD 3,

' MINE TRAM Filed Oct. 2, 1961 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 FIG. 5

INVENTOR W/'///'am 5. Howard UWM ATTORNEY United States Patent F 3,136,534 MINE TRAM William S. Howard, RD. 2, Washington Lands, Moundsville, W. Va. Filed Oct. 2, 1961, Ser. No. 142,209 16 Claims. (Cl. 262l) This invention relates to a mine roof bar retriever apparatus, and has for an object to provide an improved apparatus for use in retrieving the mine roof bars of a mine, particularly a coal mine and, in addition, an apparatus for also removing the mine roof bar supporting props, if the roof condition permits.

A further object of this invention is to provide an improved apparatus utilizing a vehicle such as a mine tram, which has been specially arranged for carrying out this invention.

A further object of this invention is to provide a vehicle or mine tram which is especially adapted for and arranged for removing the mine roof bars, and also removing the mine roof bar props in a progressive order from the area furthermost from access thereto, as roof conditions permit, so that the mined out area of the mine may be permitted to subside after all the salvageable material has been removed at a minimum cost.

Still a further object of this invention is to provide a mine bar retriever vehicle especially arranged for removing mine roof bars and also, mine roof bar props, and, when not needed for such use, may also be used as a mine tram to take supplies to the working face, thus providing for economy of equipment.

Still a further object of this invention is to provide a mine roof bar and prop retriever in the form of a specially equipped vehicle, wherein the vehicle has means for temporarily reinforcing the mine roof adjacent the particular bar to be retrieved, then anchoring one end of the vehicle against the mine floor and the bar to be retrieved, then forcing the bar supporting proper away from under the bar, permitting the bar tov be retrieved and placed in the vehicle for removal. The support props are then placed back in a supporting position as needed between the mine roof and mine floor.

Still a further object of this invention is to provide an apparatus for retrieving mine roof bars and, where possible, the mine roof props also, that is particularly economical of labor and time in so doing.

With the above and related objects in view, the present invention consists in the details of construction and combination of parts, as will be more fully understood from the following description, when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of this invention.

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of FIG. 1, partly broken away.

FIG. 3 is a side elevation of FIG. 2, partly broken away and sectionalized.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view on line 4-4 of FIG. 1

FIG. 5 is a front elevational view of the invention, shown in operative position.

FIG. 6 is a top plan view of FIG. 5.

There is shown at It) the vehicle or mine tram in which this invention has been incorporated. The tram or vehicle 16 is supported and transported on endless tracks 12 of well-known and conventional construction, travelling over end wheels 14 and idler wheels 16, the wheels 14 being journaled on axles 18 which,rin turn, extend into the chassis assembly 20 in the bottom of the vehicle 10.

In order to steer the vehicle, conventional means are used for operating either endless track 12 faster or slower than the other one, and may be operated from 3,136,534 Patented June 9, 1 964 ICef tram control levers 22 conveniently located in a control panel 24, here shown as being located in one side wall 26 of the vehicle. A second side wall 28, parallel to the first side wall 26, is located on the opposite side of the vhicle spaced from the first side wall and supported on the vehicle floor 30. A front wall 32 extends transversely across the front end of the side walls 26 and 28, the rear end being open, and a roller 34 being journaled between the side walls 26 and 28 adjacent the open rear end of the floor 30.

The motorfor the vehicle 10 is of conventional construction, hence, is not shown, but may be either electrical, operated by a trailing cable from feed lines or by rechargeable storage batteries, or diesel, or gas powered in any conventional manner, and may be located beneath the floor between the tracks 12 or any other convenient location, such details being conventional and not an inventive part of this device.

Located within the two side walls 26 and 28 and substantially midway over the tracks 12 is a vertical jack cylinder 36 into which extends a jack piston 38 for hydraulic operation by means of pressure cables 40 coming from a hydraulic pump and pressure reservoir conventionally shown at 42, a pressure control knob 44 in the panel 24 being provided for controlling the pressure to the cylinder 36 beneath the jack piston 38.

Each jack piston 38 has a longitudinally extending safety bar 46 permanently secured on the top thereof as by a plate 48, to which it may be welded.

The piston 38 being cylindrical, the safety bars 46, which are in the form of I-beams, could easily pivot thereabout if and when such pivotal action is desired, but in normal operation it is desired that both bars 46 remain in parallelism and a bolt 50 is secured through the ends of the bars 46 adjacent the front end of the vehicle 10 by nuts 52, thus being readily removable should it be desired to use the bars 46 in a position other than in parallelism.

A platform 54 extends forwardly of the front wall 32, and supported at each of the forward end corners of the platform 54 are two axially aligned opposed vertically extending hydraulic jack cylinders 56 and 58, and the bases 60 and 62 of. the cylinders 56 and 58 are secured together as by stud bolts or rivets 64 for maintaining the cylinders 56 and 58 in opposed axial alignment.

The lower jack cylinder 56 is provided with a lower flange 66 secured by stud bolts 67 to the platform 54. A jack piston 68 is provided in the lower cylinder 56 and is mounted on a jack piston rod 70, which extends through a bushing 72 and a suitable aperture 74 in the platform 54 and terminates in a foot 76. It will be noted that the jack piston 68 is located short of the upper end of the piston rod 70, and pressure lines 76 and 78' controlled through the control knob 80' and supplied from the pressure supply means 42, serve to controllably raise or lower the jack piston 68, and thus the jack foot 76.

The upper cylinder 58 is provided with a similar jack piston 78 slightly spaced from the lower end of the jack piston rod 80, whose other end extends upwardly through a bushing 82 and an apertured end plate 84 secured by studs 86 to the cylinder flange 88. Above the apertured plate 84, the piston rod 80 continues a furtherdistance upwardly and at its upper end is provided with a U-shapef saddle 96 of a size to fit under and up the sides of a conventional mine roof bar 92, and triangular brace plates 94 are provided between the bottom of the saddle and the extended piston connecting rod at 96. To assist in holding the axially aligned cylinders 56 and 58 in vertical position, a bracing arm 98 is suitably secured between the upper end of upper cylinder 58 and the front end of the side walls 26 and 28 of the vehicle 10, and a transverse bracing arm 99 extends between the cylinders 58. The upper piston rod 8% is controlled in its movements by means of similar pressure lines 1% and 1&2 from the same source of pressure 42 and controlled from the control knob 104 in the control panel 2 5-. While the control panel 24 has been shown on the side wall 26, it will be understood that it may be located anywhere that is convenient. Any suitable means, such as stops 193, are provided to prevent the pistons 68 and 7 8 from closing off the lines 78 and 102.

Suitably located in a box 1% on the platform 54- are a pair of motors 1438, each having a reduction gear box 110, from which extends a shaft 112 whose other end is journaled in a stanchion 114 supported on the platform 54. Mounted on the shaft 112 is a winch 116 around which is coiled a wire or metal cable 118. As illustrated, there are two winches 116, and two motors 1198 and sets of reduction gears 110, one in each end of the box 106, just as there are two sets of the vertically upwardly and downwardly extending jacks 56 and 58, one in each front corner of the platform 54.

The motors 108 are heavy, rugged motors for providing a very strong turning power on the winches 116 for providing strong pulling power to their cables 113 when in operation. Obviously, any suitable conventional motors of sufiicient strength may be used at 168, and they obviously may be either electric motors either from a trailing cable to feed lines or by batteries carried beneath the floor, or may be diesel or gas motors, it only being intended that suitable existing conventional motors of suitable horsepower be utilized.

This invention is intended primarily for safely retrieving mine roof bars such as shown at 92 in FIGS. 5 and 6, in a mine room 120 for supporting the mine roof 122 and preventing it from collapsing or subsiding to the mine room floor 124, the roof bars 92 being supported by props 126, here shown as being possibly of wood, although in some mines, steel beam props may be utilized. These mine roof bars. 92 are fairly expensive, and the props 126 are also expensive, but usually less so, and the purpose of this invention is to enable the removal and salvage primarily of the mine roof bars 92, and secondarily, as much as possible, of the props 126, at the usual time after the coal has been mined out from the adjacent areas, and it is no longer necessary to keep such area of the mine open.

Without this invention, it has previously been possible to salvage some of the bars 92 and possibly some of the props 126, but only by slow hand labor at great cost, and it is only possible to salvage a small fraction of them, and also, it is a rather risky proceeding due to the possibility f the roof subsiding or collpasing, not only before the salvaged material can be removed, but also possibly before the laborer can safely escape. With this invention, however, most, if not all of the mine bars may be safely salvaged and similarly, most if not all of the props may be similarly salvaged.

The main switches for the controls are shown at 128 in the control panel 24. By suitably manipulating the main switches 128 and the endless track controls 22, the mine tram or vehicle is brought into the mine room 124} from which it is desired to retrieve and salvage the roof bars 92 and also possibly the props 126.

The vehicle or tram 10 is manipulated so as to bring the hydraulic jack iJ-shaped saddles 90 directly beneath the particular mine roof bar 92 to be salvaged. When in this position, the appropriate control is manipulated to raise the hydraulic jack saddles 9d upwardly into position against the bottom of the mine roof bar 92 and then, when in this position, without any extreme pressure hearing thereagainst, the lower hydraulic jacks 56 have their controls manipulated so as to place and anchor their feet 76 down against the floor 124, and when both the feet 76 and saddles 90 are in proper position, increased pressure may be fed into the cylinders 56 and S8 to firmly and securely anchor the vehicle in position, and firmly and securely press the mine bar 92 against the mine roof 92.

Next, the winch motors 1% are operated to permit the cables 118 to be fed outwardly and have their ends tied around the lower end of the props 126, as illustrated in FIG. 5. Preceding the application of any power to the cables 118, the hydraulic jacks 36 located in the side walls 26 and 28 are operated by their controls M to raise the hydraulic jack 38, and thus the safety bars 46, and press them against the bottom of the adjacent mine roof bars 592 that are still in position, It will be noted that the jack 36 is located substantially midway of the tracks 12, and that the safety bars idextend substantially over the endless tracks 12, and thus are firmly supported when suitable pressure has been exerted in the jack 36 forcing the jack piston 38 and its supported safety bars 46 firmly against the bottom of the adjacent mine bars. Then, when set up in this position, the winch motors 1&8 are operated to wind up the cables 118 and pull the props 126 from under the ends of the particular mine bar 92 being retrieved. Usually, this will be sufficient to pull the props from under the mine bar, but sometimes, due to the way that the props may be set up, it will be necessary to apply the power to the upper end, or to another portion of the prop 126, before it can be forced out from under the mine bar 92.

Once the props 126 have been forced from under the mine bars 92, the jacks 5d are controlled to lower the now unsupported mine bar 92, and then the mine bar may be manipulated out of thesaddles 9t} and over the front vehicle wall 32 onto the vehicle iioor 3G, with one end resting on the roller 34. Next, the jacks 36 will be controlled to slightly lower the safety bars 46, and the jacks 56 will be manipulated sufficiently to raise the feet '76 off the mine floor, whereupon the vehicle 10 may be moved to the position to bring the saddles under the next adjacent bar 92 to be retrieved.

The jacks are then manipulated again in a similar manner to raise the safety bars 45, raise the saddles into supporting contact with the next mine bar 92 to be retrieved, lower the feet '76 into anchoring position. Then, the previously removed props 125 will be put back in roof supporting position, if necessitated by the condition of the mine roof as shown at 126 in FIG. 6. Obviously, the props 126 will be somewhat short, due to the removal of the mine bar 92 thereabove, but oftentimes the roof starts to subside progressively but slowly as soon as the mine bar is removed, and the prop 126 may besulficient to continue to support the roof as soon as the slight subsiding has taken place. But obviously, a suitable block of material may be provided, if needed, to make up for the missing space.

The next mine bar 92 is removed in a similar manner and then the props 126 are progressively placed back in position at 126' when necessary. It will be noted that it may be desirable to move the props 126 closer together as illustrated in FIG. 6, after the roof bars 92 have been removed.

When a full load of bars 2 have been placed on the vehicle floor 39 and its roller 34, they will be carried away from the mine room on the vehicle 10, or another vehicle or tram of conventional construction may be brought up against it, and the mine bars 92 easily transferred thereto over the roller 34.

-With this invention, the removal of the bars and props can be done so rapidly that there will also be periods of idleness for use of this tram 10 for this particular purpose. In such case, during such idle periods, this vehicle 10 can be used as a conventional mine tram for hauling supplies to the Working face of the mine, thus making for economy in the use of the equipment.

While the hydraulic jacks have been described and illustrated as being the preferred form of jack, being both conventional and most easily manipulated, it is obviousthat any other type of jack, preferably motoroperated, may be used in place of hydraulic jacks, and could similarly be used in aligned opposed vertically upwardly and downwardly extending positions on the platform 54, so as to provide firm anchoring of the mine bar and of the foot 76 against the floor.

Also, while the winch means 116 and the winch cable 118 is the most easily manipulated, it is also within the scope of this invention to utilize a hydraulic jack for this purpose for pushing one end or the other end of the prop 126 away from under the mine bar 92 being retrieved.

Although this invention has been described in considerable detail, such description is intended as being illustrative rather than limiting, since the invention may be variously embodied, and the scope of the invention is to be determined as claimed.

Having thus set forth and disclosed the nature of this invention, what is claimed is:

1. A mine roof bar retriever comprising a vehicle having a pair of parallel endless tracks to support and transport it on a mine floor, a pair of mine roof bar engaging safety bars extending longitudinally of said vehicle over said endless tracks, a pair of upwardly extendable jacks, each said jack supporting one said safety bar, said jacks being arranged for raising and supporting said safety bars against a plurality of transversely extending mine roof bars, a pair of upwardly extendable jacks and a pair of downwardly extendable jacks at one end of said vehicle beyond said endless tracks, said downwardly extendable jacks engaging the mine floor while said upwardly extendable jacks engage a roof bar between its supporting props, and means on said vehicle for moving the bar supporting props away from under the jack engaged roof bar.

2. The bar retriever of claim 1, said prop moving means comprising winch and winch cable means.

3. The bar retriever of claim 1, said vehicle having longitudinally extending spaced apart side walls, said first mentioned jacks being located in said said side walls and a vehicle floor on said vehicle between said side walls for carrying retrievedmine bars.

4. The bar retriever of claim 3, a front wall extending transversely between said side walls and adjacent said one end, the other end of said vehicle body being open, and a roller between said side walls adjacent said open end facilitating unloading the retrieved mine bars.

5. The bar retriever of claim 1, said upwardly extendable jacks and said downwardly extendable jacks at said vehicle end being in axial, opposed alignment with each other.

6. The bar retriever of claim 5, a hydraulic pressure supply means on said vehicle, said jacks being hydraulically operable.

7. The bar retriever of claim 6, said cylinders having bases based against each other.

8. A mine roof bar retriever comprising a tram having means to support and transport it on a mine floor, said tram having a pressure fluid supply, a pair of mine roof bar engaging safety bars extending longitudinally of said tram over said tram support and transport means, a pair of upwardly extendable hydraulic jacks, each said jack supporting one said safety bar, said jacks being arranged for raising and supporting said safety bars against a plurality of transversely extending mine roof bars, a pair of upwardly extendable hydraulic jacks and a pair of downwardly extendable hydraulic jacks in opposed relationship at one end of said tram beyond said support and transport, said downwardly extendable jacks engaging the mine floor while said upwardly extendable jacks engage a roof bar between its supporting props, conduit means selectively connecting said pressure fluid supply to each of said hydraulic jacks, and selective pressure fluid control means in each said conduit means, and means on said tram for forcing the bar supporting props away from under the jack engaged roof bar.

9. The bar retriever of claim 8, said prop forcing means comprising a pair of cable winches on said one end of said tram, and cables on said cable winches.

10. The bar retriever of claim 8, said tram having a pair of longitudinally extending spaced apart side walls, said first mentioned jacks being located one in each of one of said side walls, a tram floor on said tram between said side walls for carrying retrieved mine bars, a front wall transversely of said side Wall and adjacent said one end, the other end of said tram being open.

11. The bar retriever of claim 10, and bolt means securing the front wall end of said bars together to maintain them in parallelism.

12. A mine tram comprising a vehicle having a pair of parallel endless tracks to support and transport it on a mine floor, a pair of safety bars extending longitudinally of said vehicle over said endless tracks, a pair of upwardly extendable jacks, each said jack supporting one said safety bar, a pair of upwardly extendable jacks and a pair of downwardly extendable jacks at one end of said vehicle beyond said endless tracks, said downwardly extendable jacks engaging the mine floor while said upwardly extendable jacks support a roof bar between its supporting props.

13. The mine tram of claim 12, said vehicle having longitudinally extending spaced apart side walls, said first mentioned jacks being located in said side walls and a vehicle floor on said vehicle between said side walls for carrying mine bars. I

14. The mine tram of claim 13, and a front wall extending transversely between said side walls and adjacent said one end, the other end of said vehicle body being open, and a roller between said side walls adjacent said open end facilitating loading and unloading the mine bars, said upwardly extendable jacks and said downwardly extendable jacks at said vehicle end being in axial, opposed alignment with each other.

, 15. A mine tram having means to support and transport it on a mine floor, said tram having a pressure fluid supply, a pair of safety bars extending longitudinally of said tram over said tram support and transport means, a pair of upwardly extendable hydraulic jacks, each said jack supporting one said safety bar, a pair of upwardly I extendable hydraulic jacks having supporting props at their top ends and a pair of downwardly extendable hydraulic jacksin opposed relationship at one end of said tram beyond said support and transport, said downwardly extendable jacks engaging the mine floor while said upwardly extendable jacks support a roof bar between its supporting props, conduit means selectively connecting said pressure fluid supply to each of said hydraulic jacks, and selective pressure fluid control means in each said conduit means.

16. The mine tram of claim 15, said tram having a pair of longitudinally extending spaced apart side walls, said first mentioned jacks being located one in each of one of said side walls, a tram floor on said tram between said side walls for carrying mine bars, a front wall transversely of said side wall and adjacent said one end, the other end of said tram being open.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,301,489 Wiebecke Nov. 12, 1942 2,574,857 Ball Nov. 13, 1951 2,603,373 McFarland et al. July 15, 1952 2,647,736 Loebbe Aug. 4, 1953 2,656,057 Felderman et a1. Oct. 20, 1953 2,700,483 Cook et al. Jan. 25, 1955 2,711,634 Joy June 28, 1955 2,899,800 Joy Aug. 18, 1959 

12. A MINE TRAM COMPRISING A VEHICLE HAVING A PAIR OF PARALLEL ENDLESS TRACKS TO SUPPORT AND TRANSPORT IT ON A MINE FLOOR, A PAIR OF SAFETY BARS EXTENDING LONGITUDINALLY OF SAID VEHICLE OVER SAID ENDLESS TRACKS, A PAIR OF UPWARDLY EXTENDABLE JACKS, EACH SAID JACK SUPPORTING ONE SAID SAFETY BAR, A PAIR OF UPWARDLY EXTENDABLE JACKS AND A PAIR OF DOWNWARDLY EXTENDABLE JACKS AT ONE END OF SAID VEHICLE BEYOND SAID ENDLESS TRACKS, SAID DOWNWARDLY EXTENDABLE JACKS ENGAGING THE MINE FLOOR WHILE SAID UP- 